Kumbh Mela

Kumbh Mela is a sacred and mass Hindu pilgrimage. It occurs four times in twelve year at four different places in India.

  • Allahabad (Prayag) at the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna and Saraswati river.

  • Haridwar (Uttar Pradesh) along Ganga river.

  • Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) on the bank of kshipra river.

  • Nasik (Maharashtra ) on the bank of Godavari river.

Kumbh mela at Haridwar
Kumbh mela at Haridwar
Millions of pilgrims take bath during Kumbh Mela
This festival occurs four times in a period of twelve years. After every six years Ardh Kumbh Mela is celebrated at Allahabad and Haridwar. And a Maha Kumbh Mela or Purna Kumbh Mela after every twelve years in Allahabad. These festvials are attended by million of peoples. Maha Kumbh Mela of 2001 was attended by 60 million people making it largest gathering in the world.
According to Indian Astrology, Kumbh is celebrated when planet of Brahaspati (Jupiter) moves into the zodiac sign of Kumbh (Aquarius)
 

Why Kumbh is celebrated at Haridwar, Nasik, Prayag and Ujjain?

Thousands of years ago, Gods had lost their strength, and to regain it, they thought of churning the Ksheera sagara (ocean of milk) for amrit (nectar of immortality), for this they made an agreement with the demons to equally share the amrit. But, when the Kumbha (pot) containing amrit appeared, a fight ensued. This fight continued for twelve days and twelve nights (equivalent to twelve human years). It is believed that during the battle, Garuda(Vehicle of Vishnu) flew away with the kumbh (pot), and the drops of amrit fell at four different places on earth, Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain, Nasik, so this festival (mela) is celebrated at these places.
Millions of people attend the festival on a single day. The major event is taking ritual bath at the bank of river, important bathing dates are dependent on stellar constellations, other activities includes, religious discussions, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy man, women and poors. On 14 january 2007, the auspicious occasion of makar sankranti over 5 million people participated. Maha Kumbh or Purna Mela is sacred of all pilgrimage. Next festival is occuring in Allahabad in 2013 (January).

Kumbh mela at Prayag (Allahabad)

Kumbh mela at Allahabad
Kumbh mela at Allahabad

The guru of curse – Sage Durvasa(2)

Following are the incidents where Durvasa has been involved with various people which resulted in curse. This is in continuation from this article.

 Curse on Durvasa by sage Orga

 Once Durvasa saw a Gandharva playfully bathing in a river with his wife . The sage was influenced by the scene and he desired to marry to enjoy conjugal life . Soon , he married Kandali , the daughter of sage Orva . However Kandali was arrogant , obstinate , rude and impolite . Durvasa could not bear her nasty behaviour for long and he reduced her to ashes by his curse . Just then the sage Orva arrived there and was very sad for the death of his daughter . At once , he became angry and cursed Durvasa  —  ” One day you will be insulted by the entire world for your anger and pride ”

Curse on Ambarish

This was the turning point in the life of Sage Durvasa . Durvasa plucked a hair and directed to kill Ambarish. Lord Vishnu ‘ s came to help his devotee. He used  Sudarshana Chakra , which, after killing the demon , started to chase Durvasa . The sage sought protection from Brahma who expressed his helplessness . When approached , Shiva also cited helplessness and directed the sage to seek Vishnu for protection . However Vishnu said , ” let us all approach Ambarisha for relief ” .

Durvasa curse to Ambarish

Seeing the dangerous state of the sage , Ambarisha said , ” Oh ! Sudarshana Chakra ! If I am righteous and if I am obedient to the pious people , may the sage Durvasa be saved ” . Then Sudarshana Chakra was pacified and it vanished . Tha anger and pride of Durvasa was humbled . The sage felt glad that he was cleansed of his evil trait .

Sudarshan Chakra chasing Durvasa

Curse on Shri Krishna

Durvasa did not spare Krishna also from his wrath. One day, Durvasa was eating kheer (a sweet dish made of rice and milk). Krishna was present. Durvasa ordered Krishna to apply the left over kheer on his body. Krishna applied it on the full body but did not apply on his feet. Durvasa got angry at this and cursed Krishna that since he did not obey his orders and did not apply the kheer on legs, his legs will not remain impenetrable and
unbroken. Combined with this curse and Gandhari’s, as she had cursed Krishna to die an ordinary death. She thought that Krishna was the root cause of death of her sons.

Mahabharata: The Wrath of the Kuru Clan and a story of Revenges

“Revenge is a dish best served cold” 

How true this line is in context of Mahabharata.

It is believed that Mahabharata is a symbol of victory of truth over lies, but here are few incidents related to revenge. Based on these we can say that this epic from Indian mythology contains lots of hatred as well. We can open a whole debate of what Mahabharat is all about.  And this does not take away the magic of this epic. Read the following Indian stories from Mahabharata. You will agree that revenge is indeed a strong feeling in Mahabharata.

Revenge of Amba

Amba got her revenge when she born as Shikhandi. She became the reason for killing of Bhishma. Bhishma abducted three sisters, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika for his brothers, but Amba had to kill herself because she was rejected by her lover. This was because Bhishma abducted her. Before dying, she vowed that she will eventually will be a reason for downfall of Bhishma. In her next life, she was born as Shikhandi. Shikhandi fought the war of Mahabharat from Pandavas side.  Arjuna, using Shikhandi as shield, killed Bhishma. Bhishma could not fought back because he knew that Shikhandi was a lady in her past life. Thus, Amba became a reaosn for killing of Bhishma.

Indian mythology story from Mahabharat
Bhishma on his death bed

Drona and Drupada

King Drupada got his revenge when Dhristadyumna, his son killed Drona in the battle of Mahabharat. Drona and Drupada were childhood friends and Drupada later became a king. Drona reached out to him for financial help but Drupada did not treat him properly. Drona vowed to took revenge and later Pandavas presented him before Drona as a prisoner. Drupada vowed that he would beget a son who would kill Drona.  Dhristadyumna was born as his son who killed Drona. Draupadi, the wife of pandavas, was the daughter of Drpada and sister of Dhristadyumna.

Revenge of Draupadi – death of Dushashana

Dushashana insulted Draupadi and dragged her by her hair and paid heavily with his life. Draupadi vowed that she would tie her hair only when they are covered with Dushashana’s blood taken out from his heart. Later Bheem, her husband killed Dushashana and broght the blood from his heart to Draupadi.

Satisfied, Draupadi tied her hair after they were immersed in Dushashana’s blood, when Bhima killed him and brought blood from his heart in the mahabharata war.

Draupadi cheerharan
Draupadi cheerharan

 

Revenge of Bhima and death of Duryodhana

Duryodhana also insulted Draupadi and asked her to sit on his thighs. Bheem vowed to break his thigh. In Mahabharata war, he did the same. This was against the rules of war, and Balram objected, but nevertheless, Krishna intervened.  Thus, Bhima was able to took his revenge. There is also an interesting story of how Duryodhana’s thigh was vulnerable.  Rest of his body was strong as a rock and impenetrable.

Revenge of Bheem – death of Kichak

When Panadavas were living in hiding during their Agyaatvaas, Kichak was troubling Draupadi. He was making undue advances towards her. One day, Draupadi invited him to a clandestine place. Bhima was waiting for him.  Bhima killed the mighty Kichak. Kauravas realized that Pandavas may be hiding there only since there were only few people who could overpower Kichak. Bheem was one of them.

This aspect of mahabharat fascinates me so much. Every small story is related to another story.  For example, death of Kichak was a significant event. This led to Kauravas realizing where Pandavas are hiding.

kichak-draupadi-mahabharat-indian-mythology-story
Kichak and Draupadi in Mahabharat

Mahabharata – A story of revenges (Indian Mythology)

Hand painted posters of hindi movies – Sholay and Mughal e Azam

Hand made posters of Mughal-e-Azam and Sholay (Hindi Movies)

Those who have started seeing movies couple of decades ago or before, will surely relate to the film posters, which were painted by artists. In the hindi movie Mera Naam joker, Raj Kapoor’s heroine played Meenu Master, whose earnings came from painting hoardings. Here are some of them which will surely evoke memories of hindi movies.

Sholay poster

The scene where Veeru is avenging his friend’s death. He was stopped by Thakur.

some more posters from Sholay – again the actors are not recognizable.

Can you identify the actors apart from Amjad Khan? I cannot.

This one is more close to reality. A good piece of art.

Strangely, Jaya bhaduri is available on this poster, a rarity.

another one far from reality

Last but not the least, there is a restaurant in hyderabad made in the name of Sholay.

Sholay restaurant in hyderabad – The famous song yeh dosti is drawn. It is said that it took in excess of 20 days to shoot this song.

Posters of Mughal-e-Azam

K Asif made the one of all time great hindi movie Mughal e Azam. This story revolved around Prithiraj Chauhan, Madhubala and Dilip Kumar. Lot of still remember the dialogues of this movie. The movie started with Main Hindustan hoon.

K Asif’s epic. Can you identify the actors straightaway?

These expressions were never witnessed in the original film. Thanks to the imagination of the artist, we are seeing the raudra roopa of Salim and Anarkali.

 

 

Dilip Kumar and Madhubala immortalized love on celluloid

 

similar image. I doubt if this shot was available in the film

 

Conflict of father and son – was royally put on the screen.

 

The hero looks more like Amjad Khan. Madhubala and Prithvi looked OK though.

hope above pics have evoked good memories.

Orange festival

Orange Festival across the world

This is a festival of fun and frolic is celebrated in Europe and United states among other places. Such as Netherlands, Dunedin and Tamenglong. In North america, this is known as Orange Blossom festival and celebrated in the month of April. These can be compared to the Indian festival Holi.

France – Citrusov

The most beautiful is probably the one which French celebrate. Beautiful, eye catching sculptures are created using Oranges. Even Taj mahal was created from Oranges. This festival Citrusov is held in south of France, where this is celebrated. They grow citrus here in this part of the country. French are very creative with the sculptures and the pictures show this. This is contrary of the popularity that the citrus festival is celebrated by Dutch.

Orange festival - Tajmahal

Orange festival – Tajmahal

There is no Orange festival celebrated by Dutch. Rather, they celebrate Queens day, 30 April. This is a good reason for many people to bring out their orange outfits, and it is very much an outdoor event.

Italy

In Italy in the city of Ivrea, battle of oranges is celebrated when people throw oranges on each other. The core celebration is based on a locally famous Battle of the Oranges that involves some thousands of towns people, divided into nine combat teams, who throw oranges at each other – with considerable violence – during the traditional carnival days. These are Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The legend is that it commemorates the city’s defiance against the city’s tyrant.

Battle of Oranges

Battle of Oranges

Orange Warsaw Festival is a Polish annual music festival.

 United States

Various places observe this festival in United States. e.g. in Dunedin.

The National Orange Show Festival is an annual festival held in San Bernardino County, California for hundred years. A fun event for most San Bernardino residents, there remains a legend regarding the opening of the show — it always marks rain for the usually dry Southern California residents.